Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Category: Society

  • The Pink Plateau

    The news that Lord Browne of BP has resigned over lying to a court about his relationship with a man strikes me as rather an honourable thing to do. Certainly it is in direct contrast to the attempts of Paul Wolfowitz to hang on to his position at the World Bank despite all the evidence against him.
     
    I agree with Matthew Parris’ analysis in The Times today:
    "What this story is really about is the awkardness of gay sex in the business world and our general fascination with the lives of the rich and (in Lord Browne’s case) slightly famous"
    It is entirely understandable that Lord Browne would have started out in the closet – after all, he joined BP in 1966, when homosexuality was punishable under British law. And as Parris, I think rightly, says:
    "When he was a young man, just starting, there is no way he would have made it to the top as an openly gay junior executive. The choice was between celibacy and a discretion bordering on deception. As the years rolled on and attitudes began to shift, it was too late for him to shift with them, disavowing impressions he had allowed to arise at the start".  
    Choosing to be openly gay in the business world runs risk to be subject to the effect that has been dubbed "the Pink Plateau" – the Guardian has a background story about its effect and its prevalence, still, in the oil industry. The mask that Lord Browne has worn over the years has cost him dearly – literally over 15 million pounds. And, perhaps it’s just me, but in Mr. Justice Eady’s judgement, I caught something of a lip-smacking revulsion of homosexuality in the words he chose. Also not entirely unexpected, I suppose. Some parts of society move more slowly than others. But now that the mask is off, once again I think Parris is right when he says:
    For all the misery Lord Browne will be enduring over the next few weeks, there will come a morning before the year is out when he awakes with a sudden sense that a Damoclean sword that has hung over him for so long, has vanished. His torment this morning will not be entirely unmixed with relief.  
    Update: Having now read Mr. Justice Eady’s judgement in full, I can accept that I would be off the mark from characterising it as purely "lip-smacking revulsion of homosexuality". It is altogether much more subtle than that. Nonetheless, I would argue that Lord Browne has been made an example of, and perhaps in harsher terms than might apply to other mortals. The mask has a cost.
     
    Update 2: This Guardian leader is a good summary of what I believe to be a fair stance on the matter. As for the Mail newspaper, words almost cannot express my loathing of its twisted values. As Wilde said, we may be all in the gutter, but some of us are looking up at the stars. I might add that clearly the Mail is not, and has its snout shoved firmly down into an open sewer, but that would be an insult to pigs everywhere.

  • Another National Treasure

    And talking of National Treasures, here’s someone else who I really do believe deserves that title, even if he, and many other people, would recoil at the idea. It’s Peter Tatchell. There’s a good profile of him in today’s Guardian.

  • Waiter, There’s A…

    …I’ll leave the rest unfinished. Desperately sad, but at least he was only a danger to himself.

  • Koninginnedag’s Coming

    Koninginnedag (the Queen’s Birthday) is celebrated in The Netherlands on the 30th April. Basically, it’s an excuse for a countrywide party. Already the preparations are underway. Last Friday evening, for example, Martin and I joined in with a small group of neighbours to create this piece of festive decoration. Similar pieces, done by other neighbourhood groups, are now popping up all around the area…
     
    20070421-1210-37 

  • Happy Families

    Carole Olver sounds like the matriarch from Hell. Depressing.

  • Some People…

    Some people make me want to scream out loud. A case in point is Anne Atkins. Fortunately there are folks such as Tom Hamilton on hand to point out exactly why Mrs. Atkins makes me want to scream long and loud. Thank you, Mr. Hamilton.

  • James Nachtwey: Witness

    I linked to a picture taken by James Nachtwey in a recent posting of mine. Nachtwey was recently awarded a prize at this year’s TED. Here is his acceptance speech, in which he illustrates his ability to be a witness. It’s worth watching.

  • Scarred For Life

    Sometimes, I really despair for people’s ability to grasp a sense of proportion.
     
    The latest example comes from a world that I know little about – American basketball. Still, when did that ever stop me… Yes, I grant you that the comment, that a female basketball team were "nappy-headed hos" by a radio host, Don Imus, was completely crass and insensitive. But for one of the team, Matee Avajon, to state that his comment has "scarred me for life" is so ridiculous as to make me despair.
     
    Oh, yes, Matee Avajon, scarred for life? Like this, you mean? Think again.

  • Global Strategic Trends

    One of the things that Shell has done for over 30 years is craft long term scenarios, looking at possible developments in societies and the world. Twenty years ago, I became involved in helping to set up similar exercises in Shell focusing on possible futures of Information Technology.
     
    I am reminded of that with the news that the UK Ministry of Defence has just published its own long term study of Global Strategic Trends, which attempts to forecast trends in the context of Defence out to 30 years. A summary is here, and the full study can be downloaded from here.
     
    As has already been noted, the report has definite Ballardian overtones, mixed, I would say, with a soupçon of Brunner…

  • One Woman’s Story

    I’ve been lucky, I know. I’ve never been in a relationship such as this; either as the victim or the transgressor. Natasha managed to come through. Not everyone is so lucky. And sometimes, it is the victim who snaps.

  • Love Your Family

    Louis Theroux ventures where most of us would be afraid to go. Say hello to the Phelps.

  • Damning Evidence

    If this is a data point, I would have to say that Americans have lost their capability to think. Please say it isn’t so.

  • Yet Another Debate

    It’s just like waiting for the proverbial London bus – you stand around for ages and ages, and then three of them come along at once. Here’s another debate about religion… This time between Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and AC Grayling versus Rabbi Julia Neuberger, Professor Roger Scruton and Nigel Spivey. The podcasts can be downloaded here.
     
    The trouble is that every speaker is like a blind man confronted with the elephant – they all define it in their own way, so they mostly talk past each other. There are some good riffs – Hitchens’ introduction is excellent, and Spivey’s in its own way is pretty good, but he did seem (to me) to confuse religion with creativity, and religion with patronage. Thankfully, Dawkins pointed out the latter confusion. I’m still listening so haven’t heard all the arguments, but it’s good stuff thus far…
     
    Update: I was not impressed at all by Neuberger or Scruton. If this is the best that those who believe that religion is a good thing, then the result that the motion that "we’d all be better off without religion" was carried does not surprise me one bit. 
     
    For: 1,205
    Against: 778
     
    The motion is carried.

  • Another Debate

    This time it’s Dawkins and McGrath. I haven’t heard it yet – just downloading it now. I’m curious to hear whether McGrath comes up with anything better than hand-waving this time around.
     
    Update: Nope – he didn’t. He’s a prime example of an "Imperial Courtier" who dances round every utterance without voicing anything whatsoever of substance so far as I could discern.

  • Life Imitates Art – Part II

    Sometimes I think my head will explode. It’s likely to be triggered by an overdose of incongruity. Such as this: the video of Nigerian email scammers acting out the Monty Python "Dead Parrot" sketch in the mistaken belief that this will earn them a scholarship to come to the US to study film.

  • Life Imitates Art

    In a fine piece over at Ballardian, Simon Sellars muses on the parallels between a film made in 1974, modern suburbia in Australia, and the uncanny prescience of J. G. Ballard in describing it all. Worth reading.

  • A Debate

    I see that a video of the recent debate between Alister McGrath and Peter Atkins is now available here. The topic of the debate is: Darwin and Humanity: should we rid the mind of God?
     
    The sound quality is somewhat suspect for Peter Atkins, but stick with it. Clearly God is on McGrath’s side – or at least the sound engineer is. 
     
    I have to say that I was very unimpressed by McGrath – he sounded just like a trendy vicar giving a sermon, with the amount of his handwaving counterbalanced by the shallowness of his arguments. And I marvelled when he said:
    "When I was young I used to be an amateur astronomer, I used to look at the night sky and I knew just enough astronomy to know that the light from some of those stars wouldn’t hit earth for hundreds of years and to me, that simply said to me, you will be dead by then and so the night sky was a symbol of melancholy, a reminder of the brevity of life."
    It sounded to me as though he needs God so that he has meaning to his life. I don’t. When I look at the night sky, I too realise the same fact about stellar distances, but that to me is amazing, not melancholic, and, I might add, that knowledge has come through scientific advance and not through theology.

  • Rights For Filth

    I would like to think that this gentleman is being ironical, but I fear that he is being absolutely serious… Clearly, care in the community is going too far…
     
     
    However, good to know where he stands. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry after listening to this codswallop. However, I know that he just can’t help it. Oh, and he’s an ex-policeman apparently. Makes you feel proud, doesn’t it?

  • Poland’s Dark Age

    Further to my comment the other day that Poland seems intent on marching forward into a new Dark Age, Doug Ireland has an excellent in-depth piece covering the background to the new anti-gay bill.

  • Interview With Adam Curtis

    Via Not Saussure, here’s a pointer to an interview with Adam Curtis about his latest work, The Trap. Worth reading.